Dust from Antigone's Hand
by evilbuny1
Summary: What would Seven do to see B'Elanna safely home?


Captain Janeway looked around. "I don't like the idea of doing this  
without Seven but she and the Doctor are not due back for four days and we have one shot at this, if we're lucky. I want everyone to run through their parts in teams on the holodeck."  
B'Elanna nodded. Worst case scenario, well, second worst case scenario, they would have fresh trans warp parts for them to play with and they would get some spare parts for Seven's regeneration alcoves. She didn't exactly advertise it, but she had a deep respect and a growing affection for the difficult woman and it would mean a lot to be able to do that for her.  
Janeway took a deep breath. "Anything else?" She looked around. "Come to me with anything on this people. No surprises. Dismissed."

Voyager sidled up to the hulking remains of the Borg tactical sphere. Harry blew out a tense breath. "I hate being this close even if its dead," he muttered. "Mr. Paris, all stop. Kim to Captain Janeway."  
"Janeway here."  
"You wanted to know when we parked."  
"Understood. Team B moving. Janeway out."  
"Kim to Chakotay."  
"Go ahead Harry."  
"Delta Flyer is on its way."  
"B'Elanna's moving us into position. Chakotay out."  
Harry took a breath. "Mr. Keller, deploy proximity buoys."  
"Buoys away. In position in one minute."  
Harry clenched his fist tightly as he monitored the command data link. A slight tension headache was beginning behind his eyes.  
"Mr. Kim," began Keller.  
One look and Harry opened the link to the Captain. "Captain,  
company's coming."  
"Understood. Charges are armed and we're transferring the first load as of... now. Give us all the breathing room you can Mr. Kim. Harry?"  
"Yes Captain?"  
"Try not to scratch the ride. Janeway out."  
Harry half-grinned before looking up. "Mr. Paris, back us away. We'll lay a trail and see if that'll draw them off. Mr. Keller, make us inviting, begin the wounded duck transmissions. "  
"Beginning transmissions now."  
Janeway tapped her comm badge. "Running out of time, B'Elanna."  
"Two more injector assemblies and then we're gone. Make that one. See you back at the ship."  
"Understood. Janeway out." Janeway checked her tricorder. She blinked. Raising the tricorder she examined the readings closely. "Tuvok, you're with me." The redhead ducked under a projecting beam and followed the tricorder's directions.  
"Captain, are you certain this is wise considering the obvious time constraints? "  
"Dead sphere filled with dead drones and a highly active power source of unknown type only readable at this range? My gut says we need to make the time. I just wish Seven was with. She could have just cut her usual swathe through the computer."

Seven re-routed the power to the shields. Another explosion ripped at the hull of the tiny ship. Seven and the Doctor were rocked heavily as they struggled to hold their fragile protection against the inhospitable climate of space together.  
Seven shot a look at her companion. The Doctor was a hologram and so would be alright as long as his emitter remained intact. She would not be so fortunate if the ship were further damaged. She pulled up her Borg ice to keep her fear at bay. There was a logical way out of this.  
A planet appeared to be just in range. Seven summoned the tendrils of power that weren't needed to keep the hull intact to make a tiny warp jump to get in range and then begin a more or less intact landing on the rough terrain of an alien world.  
"Seven. Get in the pod." The Doctor began bringing the command functions over to his board.  
"I am capable of-" Seven looked over at the Doctor and conceded to  
the logic. "The power will be sufficient for a landing."  
"So I see. Pod now, Seven." The Doctor accessed the files on emergency procedures and began to bring the shuttle around as the ship rocked in the heavy atmosphere.  
Seven balanced against the panel as the ship shimmied and opened the pod. She slid into the unit and sealed herself in. She never felt the ship crash.  
The Doctor fizzed once and twice before the emitter stabilized. He looked around at the terrible twisting of the rocky terrain and the flaming pieces of shuttle strewn about. He began searching for the pod or for an intact tricorder.  
Locating the emergency beacon, he activated it and took a deep holographic breath. They had transmitted before the second explosion but there was no indication that it had been received and further, the Intrepid class starship was still so very far away.  
The Doctor called out. If the pod were intact it could be anywhere and Seven would not be able to hear him. His comm signal was bounced back by something in the heavy rocks. His dark eyes caught on a piece of metal about twenty feet down the landing scar. He stumble-ran down and knelt.  
He fizzled briefly in electronic anxiety. It was a piece of the pod's control panel. The Doctor looked around frantically for further sign of his only real friend and began jogging down the slope. The slope terminated in an endless drop. There was no other sign of the pod.

Janeway's fingers were inches from the interface when her comm burst to life. Hearing the Borgy badness was on the way, she cursed quietly. "Tuvok, I'm gonna make a grab for this. You go ahead and set up an isolation field for it."  
"Captain."  
"Not now. I don't know what this is but I'll be damned if I'm gonna let the Borg play with it. Go on ahead." She began working out how  
to dislodge the core element. Tuvok looked her momentarily before  
turning and going.  
B'Elanna powered up to make the run for the rendezvous point. She slid from the engineering console to the pilot's chair. "Chakotay?"  
He called from the back. "We're buttoned in back here."  
"Core team to Voyager. We're outta here."  
"Got it B'Elanna. The cube bailed on us and is headed back to you so keep your head down."  
"Thanks Harry." B'Elanna's fingers slid over the interface and the shuttle began to pull away from the sphere. She checked the territory as Chakotay moved into his chair.  
"The Captain's ship should have been away already," he mused as he pulled up data.  
"Damnit!" B'Elanna growled and her mind ticked over options. She came to a conclusion she wished she could just jam back into the box in her head again. B'Elanna changed course to skim over the sphere's surface.  
Chakotay looked over at the half-Klingon woman, his tattoo flying up into his hairline. "What are you doing?"  
"Get ready," she growled. "Everyone get ready for transport," she yelled back.  
"The hell I will."  
"They're not out of there, something must be going wrong. You need to get them on the road."  
"What about you?"  
"Voyager'll slow them. I'm just the back-up. Go!" she shouted.  
B'Elanna shot him a dirty look when he hesitated. Chakotay hopped out of his chair and headed for the back of the shuttle. "Damned slow as usual."  
As soon as her crew was away B'Elanna turned the shuttle away and began to move to a position where she could attract some seriously wrong attention.

The Doctor had dropped shelf of rock to shelf of rock down the long face of the cliff. An explosion rang in the chasm. The rocks shifted and fell on either side of the hologram. He looked for the next shelf. Seven would need him. Even with all the protection of the pod, his best friend would need him.  
Seven's eyes closed and tightly. To the Borg pain was irrelevant, but Seven to her continual consternation was not entirely Borg anymore. She opened her eyes and reached over to touch bloody fingertips to torn shoulder implant. Turning her head she saw the tube peeled up in several places around her. She moved her fingers over her chest to the comm badge.  
When no response was forthcoming, Seven began a self-diagnostic. She needed to know what she was going to be working around to get her house in order. The news was not comforting. She needed to regenerate and soon or several of her implants would lose function altogether. It disturbed her to no end to know the condition of those biological structures she could assess.  
The Doctor found the subspace transmitter. It was not fully functional but supposing Seven was not dead, it could be made to work well enough. His anxiety increased ten-fold. She could not be dead. He would not allow for that possibility. Shifting the transmitter to a more comfortable position, the Doctor began looking for the next dropping spot.  
The next shelf gave the Doctor what he needed. He could now see the bulk of the pod. It was crushed on one end and torn in several places. The Doctor could not see any sign of movement. His eyes closed briefly. He made the final jump to the chasm's bottom.  
Seven felt her eyes drift shut again. She felt the blood flowing over the sensitive mesh of her abdomen. She did not believe in a god save Perfection. She had nothing to pray to. It did not stop the former Borg's lips from moving in silent entreaty to whomever might be listening for the continued safety of those who she called her family.  
Moments later the metal shrieked over her head. The holographic Doctor reached in and touched Seven's cheek. There was no response to the touch. The Doctor began to do what he did best.

B'Elanna cursed as she saw the cube render Voyager motionless with a tractor beam and continue it's stately path to the sphere. She rocketed out of her chair to hit the engineering station. A few  
reconfigurations later she jumped back into the pilot's seat.  
"Come on, come on." The ship felt like it was moving backwards. B'Elanna was shoehorning power from everyplace to get just a little faster. She wasn't sure she could get to the cube before Voyager became the equivalent of a Borg buffet. Yelling at the engines to get up off their mechanical rears she threw on another burst of speed and the oddly configured shield disrupted the tractor on the other ship.  
The half-Klingon howled in triumph. She tried to maneuver away when the little shuttle rocked and a Borg beamed aboard. She brought her compression rifle up from its place beside her seat and fired. It was effective. The next shot was not.  
She angrily punched at a board setting the drive for overload and tried desperately to reset the phase on the rifle. The next moments seemed to stretch like taffy.  
A heartbeat. A Borg stepped over its brethren. The grey mottled skin looked colder than ice. It began to raise a black clad arm as it came toward her.  
Another heartbeat. She fired and tasted ash as the drone's shield rejected her attack. B'Elanna howled and turned the rifle to physically club at the Borg.  
Her heart beat one more time. The rifle was swept away by a casual swipe of an arm. An icy hand clasped the half-Klingon woman tightly. The tubules sank into her flesh even as she spared her final thoughts for her family.

Janeway's heart sank as she saw the shuttle disappear into the maw of the cube. She closed her eyes tightly for a moment. "Get us back to Voyager. If we want to get her back we're going to need more resources." The woman within the Captain howled at even the  
temporary loss of one of her daughters but the Captain had to keep the ducks rowed up.  
Chakotay put a hand on her shoulder. She fought down the urge to break it. She stepped out from under it and moving forward set the sensors to absorb every bit of data they could. They had to mark the cube. "If they've assimilated her, they know about the charges."  
Tuvok adjusted the course to bring them to the rendezvous point. "You intend to go after her."  
"I do, Tuvok."  
Tuvok raised his eyebrow. "Then it is better that the cube she is on not be destroyed. Perhaps it was for the best that she was taken  
before learning of the device. It may be something we can use."  
Chakotay ground out, "Certainly hope it was worth it."  
Janeway looked back at her first officer. She hoped so too. Sighing quietly she made her way back to the storage area. The red head looked at the device sitting like a glowing toad in the isolation field. She covered her eyes. Taking a deep breath, Kathryn began bringing up the data being accrued.  
Tom was in shock. His ex-wife had been taken. His fingers felt like rocks. Harry clasped his shoulder. "Get us to the rendezvous and then call up your replacement. "  
Tom tried to swallow around the lump in his throat. He had a matching rock in his chest. "We have to go after her..." he began.  
"Not without the Captain, not without a plan."  
"What if she decides we can't do it?"  
"The Captain doesn't leave people behi-" There was the sound of a  
distress signal. Harry sat in the big chair and pulled up the  
accompanying message.  
"Damn!"  
Tom turned. "Harry?"  
"B'Elanna's not the only one in trouble."

The Doctor's hands moved faster than vision. Seven had lost  
consciousness and her nanoprobes needed all the help he could provide just to keep her alive. Her arm was nearly severed at the shoulder implant, her legs crushed. All the regenerators in the world would not make this easy and at the bottom of a chasm with minimal medical equipment it was uphill. The Doctor found himself bouncing from cursing to praising the sudden burst of sound from the subspace transmitter.  
It was damaged. The transmissions faded in and out but it was Voyager. They had received the distress call and were seeking more information. The Doctor glanced at his patient and removed his hand long enough to open a channel.  
"Seven in critical... .Sickb-.. ...mediate. ..respond Voy-..."  
Janeway came onto the Bridge to the tune of the Doctor's message. Her heart got cold at the thought of two daughters lost. She hesitated a moment. "Clean up that signal. Get a fix on their location."  
Paris, who had just been relieved stopped dead in his tracks. "What  
about B'Elanna?" he bellowed.  
"In my ready room, Mr. Paris. Now."  
The Captain sat on the edge of her desk. "Tom. We are not going to just forget her. If we go off half-cocked, she won't be the only one taken. Seven needs us and frankly if we're to have a real fighting chance of recovering B'Elanna I think we need her too."  
"This is bullshit."  
Janeway closed her eyes briefly. "Tom, I know you are hurting. I'm trying to make allowances but if you ever take that tone with me again cleaning plasma vents with a toothbrush will seem like a dream come true. Dismissed."  
Janeway loosened her fingers from where they were cramping on the desk's edge. She prayed that she made the right choice. She tapped her comm badge. "Janeway to Astrometrics. "  
"Crewman Tal Celes, Captain."  
"We won't be able to follow that cube but we need to know where it goes."  
"With the new sensors we should be able to pick up a trail up to a week later. We could set up a probe to start following the trail. It could help."  
"Do it. Janeway out."  
Taking a deep breath Kathryn Janeway felt something she hadn't felt in very long time. A tear rolled down her face. Her fist pulled back and drove down into the surface of her desk.

Seven awoke from a regenerative slumber. Her eyes picked out a slouched figure of Kathryn Janeway sitting on the end of the alcove dais. She stepped down and walked around to stand in front of the redhead. Her head tilted. "Captain?"  
Janeway stood up. Her gray eyes were dark. She stepped forward to wrap her arms around the former drone. Seven's ocular implant rose to her hairline. She hesitantly raised her arms sufficiently to place her hands on Janeway's waist in a poor reflection of the Captain's hug. Her hands dropped as Janeway stepped back.  
"I'm sorry, Seven."  
Seven's head tilted. "For what Captain?"  
"The hugging might have been just a tad inappropriate. " Janeway barked a laugh before sobering again. "We lost B'Elanna and almost lost you. I was so relieved... How are you feeling Seven?"  
"I am functioning within acceptable parameters. We have lost Lt. Torres?" Seven felt as though she were back in the pod feeling her life fading away again.  
Janeway's eyes slid shut. "The Borg took her," she said quietly.  
Seven asserted. "We will retrieve her."  
"There was a trail, but it was lost when a plasma storm swept through the area. We haven't the faintest idea where the cube went. I can't even begin to calculate the odds of finding the correct cube if we were even able to find a cube." Janeway felt her guilt and sadness rise again to devour her once more.  
Seven looked at her as if she were an interesting bug. "One in 273,023. We will retrieve her."  
"Seven..." Kathryn felt a weight crushing her. "Check in with the Doctor. Catch up with your duties. We'll talk later." She spun wearily on her heel and without another word strode out of the Cargo Bay.

Seven strode toward the Sickbay. Her steps faltered as she heard something of the conversations as she passed. She stopped dead, her head tilted, she considered new information and wholly new degrees of heat and venom. She was used to being despised for her Borg- ness. There was something more to it now.  
She dragged up her ice mask and continued. More information was necessary. Seven mentally shook her head. It was not necessary. She could not be hurt by hard words. Her family, her collective needed her functional. That is what she would be. Anything else was irrelevant.  
She turned and entered the Sick Bay. Seven was pushed hard against a wall. Reaching out she pushed back even as she snagged the front of a uniform. Tom Paris was at arm's length. He spat at her.  
Seven released him. She hesitantly touched the warm wetness on her face. "You Borg bitch," he snarled.  
The ocular implant rose. "Mr. Paris?"  
"You have no right to be alive." He pushed her as he passed. She did not resist. She was very confused.  
The Doctor offered Seven a cloth. "He's upset. He'll cool down."  
"What is he talking about? Why is he acting in such an irrational  
manner?"  
The Doctor looked distinctly uncomfortable. He walked over to the biobed. Slapping it he said, "Hop up Seven."  
She tilted her head. Crossing the room she lifted herself up on the bed. Seven handed the cloth back and regarded the Doctor as he worked with his eyes cast down. "What has happened Doctor?"  
His hands stilled for a moment in their travels. The Doctor moved over to a central work station. He cleared his throat. "Certain of the less mature individuals on the ship hold you responsible for the loss of Lt. Torres."  
Seven's head tilted as she considered what she knew of her actions in the recent past. "I did nothing that would result in the loss of Lt. Torres to the Borg."  
"You survived. That was enough in their eyes. Seven, to save you, the ship had to leave the trail of Lt. Torres. The Captain and most of the other Senior Staff members recognized the need to save you.  
Without your knowledge any attempt to liberate Lt. Torres would in all likelihood have failed."  
"Mr. Paris does not believe that way."  
"Mr. Paris lost a best friend. He is drowning in his anger and grief."  
"I understand."  
"Seven. The injuries you received were extensive. You will need another two regenerative cycles to complete your healing process. You are off duty until that's done."  
"Doctor-"  
"Seven..." The Doctor rubbed his holographic forehead. "We almost lost you. Please, for once, do what I ask."  
The muscle in her jaw twitched. She nodded curtly to the hologram. "Of course Doctor," she offered even as she mulled over her plan of action.

Seven walked into Astrometrics powered by Borg attitude. It didn't keep the hard words at bay but they were less distressing when she was making herself believe that they couldn't touch her. She did not have anything to do with the loss of Lt. Torres. While the crew  
never completely warmed up to her, she thought they knew her better than that.  
Her eyes slid across the room to see TalCeles coming at her. She lifted her chin, ready for more angry words.  
"Prophets Seven. You scared me." Celes hugged the former Borg fiercely.  
Seven waited for Celes to step back. Her implant was high on her forehead. "You do not hold me responsible for what has happened."  
The Bajoran's forehead knitted slightly. "Of course not. Only an idiot would believe that you would ever hurt any of us, especially Lt. Torres."  
Seven's head tilted. "Especially? "  
Tal Celes looked sad. "I know you liked her Seven. Confrontation is inefficient. I've seen you disagree with people. You express  
yourself and walk away and do what you want if you aren't  
convinced. You don't toe-to-toe with people. You were trying to be near her."  
"An interesting assessment."  
"She liked you too," Celes concluded quietly.  
Seven's eyes sought out the Bajoran's. She could hear the woman's heart and monitor a half dozen other indicators of truthfulness. Her chin lifted. Tal Celes spoke truthfully and with surety.  
Her emotional state grew more chaotic. She stepped past the Bajoran to bring up the computer. She felt a wetness on her cheek. Seven  
brushed it away absently as she began bringing up every file  
available on the Borg who took Lt. Torres.  
Tal Celes touched Seven's forearm gently. Seven looked at her. The brunette brushed the tears away. "Seven..." she trailed off.  
"We must locate her."  
"Seven, the Captain has declared Lt. Torres lost. The odds were just too far against being able to find her without losing anyone sent after her."  
Seven's jaw tightened. She nodded curtly. The former drone moved toward the door.  
"Seven, the Captain knows how you fight too." Tal Celes called and began re-doing her calculations for the day with a sad shake of her head.

Seven went back to the Cargo Bay. She downloaded everything she could find on the cube and the heading it had taken before the storm has destroyed all trace of its passage. The blonde looked around before stepping behind the alcove. She pulled out a small crate. Placing the data PADD atop the tiny pile of her possessions in the box. She made her way to the Shuttle Bay.  
"It was my fault," she heard from the far side of the Delta Flyer. Kathryn Janeway stepped around the nose. The Captain crossed her arms and stared at the former drone.  
"If we had a rock solid plan and solid knowledge that B'Elanna was still on that cube, I would be standing where you are, getting ready to leave. You and I both know that she would be put where she would be of maximum use to the Borg Collective, which means she could be anywhere by now." The Captain sighed and rubbed her forehead. She needed to make the blonde understand.  
Taking a shaking breath she finally said it out loud. "My arrogance cost me one of two women I love as daughters, I will not lose you too. You're not going anywhere Seven."  
"The loss is temporary only. I will recover Lt. Torres," asserted the blonde.  
Kathryn shook her head. "You are not going anywhere," she re-stated  
quietly. She stepped forward.  
Seven's chin came up she felt a cold curling in her chest. "You promised. If I found my individuality and wanted to return, you promised to send me."  
The Captain's eyes slid shut, though not in time to stop the tear. "I'm sorry Seven." She tapped her comm badge. "Janeway to Tuvok. Initiate Janeway Seven epsilon."  
Seven felt the dematerialization and found herself in the brig. She dropped the crate and began hammering at the force field. She could sense her nanoprobes attempting to free her but the field was rotating very quickly indeed.  
Tuvok came to stand before the field. He watched her for several long moments. "Your actions are not logical. You must cease."  
Seven felt what could only be rage build up. She let loose with a scream of fury that any Klingon would be glad to claim.

Even with the lingering effects of her injuries beginning to accumulate again, Seven was relentless. The Captain came in to the sight of a disheveled Seven doing her damnedest to dismantle her cell from the inside out. She was not fool enough to believe that Seven would bend easily. Janeway had however hoped that she would remain to some degree rational in her outrage concerning the  
situation.  
The shield flared in front of the Captain. "Have we heard back from the Doctor?" She asked the Security Chief.  
Tuvok nodded. "He has given me the appropriate combinations of gases to render her unconscious for sufficient time to move her back to the alcove."  
"We'll get her regenerating again. I'm sure once she is all better she'll listen to reason."  
Tuvok raised his eyebrow even as Seven tore the shelf for sleeping apart. "If she were Vulcan, I would have no doubt. However, for all of her admirable grasp of logic, she is human and more than that, a human who is experiencing a loss. She is not rational at this moment."  
The Captain watched the blonde and winced at the bloodcurdling shriek accompanied by flying metal. She took a breath. "Do it. There is nothing else left."  
Tuvok looked at his old friend. "You could release her. I must point out that we may be construed as violating her rights. She has indicated a choice and we are actively obstructing her."  
Kathryn shook her head. "No, we won't release her while she's like this. She is a danger to herself and others. Do it." She took one final look at her surrogate daughter and doing all that she could to steel herself in the face of even more difficult choices than she ever dreamed of facing in the Academy, left the brig.  
Seven's nanoprobes alerted her to the presence of an unwelcome set of chemicals being put into her cell. She fought the effects but her weakened state slowed nanoprobe adaptation rates. The blonde looked up at the Security Chief. She fell heavily to the floor of the cell.  
Seven opened her eyes to see Tal Celes at the console of the alcove. The brunette looked up relieved. "Thank the Prophets. I thought I caused brain damage for a bit there."  
"Crewman?"  
"We have to hurry Seven. It's time to go."

Seven stepped down and reaching out in front of Tal Celes, keyed the power down sequence. "What are you doing here?"  
"I'm going with you."  
"I seek the Borg. My intention is to locate Lt. Torres. The possibility exists that I will be re-assimilated and anyone with me will likewise be assimilated. "  
Celes's eyes widened momentarily before her chin rose. "The Borg scare me senseless but you're my friend. I heard the Doctor and the Captain talking, you won't be able to do this without help."  
Seven located her possessions and lifted them. "I will not place you in jeopardy."  
"You need me," asserted the brunette as she took the crate from the  
blonde.  
"I do not."  
"Even if I've extrapolated the current location of the hunter probe we sicced on the cube?" Celes's eyebrow rose in an unconscious imitation of the blonde.  
Seven was caught flat-footed by the question. Her jaw twitched. "You will tell me."  
"No. You're not doing this without my help and I am not above extortion." Celes crossed her arms and stared at taller woman.  
"Just tell her yes so we can go already," Paris ground out from the  
stacks nearest the door.  
Seven startled and looked from Celes to Paris. Celes turned toward the door. "He seems to think we need a pilot. Can't get rid of the bugger."  
"Mr. Paris, you spit on me."  
Tom ran his fingers through his sandy hair. "I'm sorry. I was angry. If you're going to save B'Elanna, count me in."  
Seven looked from one to the other. "There is insufficient time to dissuade you before my current conscious state is discovered. Do we have a plan for exiting the ship?"  
Paris jerked his thumb at the Astrometrics assistant. "Ask the Mastermind."  
Seven's implant rose as she looked at the Bajoran. Tal Celes looked around nervously. She leaned forward and whispered loudly, "I might  
have a plan."

The three made their way down the corridor. Tom opened the hatch to  
Jefferies tube network. Celes spoke up. "Everything runs through the sensors. Tracking, targeting. I've set the sensor array and all its back-ups to go down for an extensive updating as we leave."  
"Sensor updates abort when red alert sounds," Tom noted as he hit the vertical tube.  
Tal looked at Seven and shrugged. "Not if you disable the red alert  
protocols."  
Seven looked at Celes as if she had grown another head since the last time they worked together. "I believe I have underestimated you."  
Celes smiled. "Still can't predict a plasma storm front to save my life but I hang out with a hypochondriac. We talk a lot about worst case scenarios. He was terrified the targeting scanners would go down just as a plague filled ship came up on us." The brunette  
shrugged and started climbing the ladder.  
Seven followed her guides through the tubes. They stopped at the hatch just beyond the Shuttle Bay. Tom turned and pushed back at the two women behind them. "There's a guard," he whispered. "Probably a force field or some kind of watchdog."  
Celes pulled out a mini-PADD. "The internal sensors will go offline  
in about 10 seconds."  
Paris nodded. "I got the guard." He left the tube with a hearty, "Marshall, where the hell were you Friday? I was hoping to see your rats on the table for poker."  
The guard turned and smiled at Paris. Paris clapped his shoulder and then clapped his other hand with a palmed hypo into the guard's neck. The sandy blonde man lowered the larger man slowly to the ground. "Damn he weighs a ton. Help me pull him into the bay, Seven."  
Seven stepped forward and taking up the other arm helped the helmsman pull the unconscious man behind a storage unit. They headed for the shuttle. Tom and Celes ran for the Flyer, closely followed by the former drone. A brief wail startled the three. It died just as quickly.  
Tom and Seven looked at Celes who ducked her head. "Not an exact science."  
"It is an exact science," noted Seven as she entered the Flyer.

Tom slid them out of the Shuttle Bay and took them clear at a speed that would have gotten him citations at every major and minor spaceport in the Alpha Quadrant. Voyager moved to follow.  
"Janeway to Shuttle. Return immediately. "  
Seven responded. "That is not conducive to the continuation of our search efforts."  
"Seven, dammit! Get back here now or you will face consequences you never dreamed possible." The Captain's head turned briefly. "Paris and who?" Kathryn turned back. "If you don't care about your future, consider theirs, Seven."  
Tom called out. "We don't leave friends behind." He slapped the comm panel and coaxed maximum warp out of his baby, the Delta Flyer. "Give me a heading ladies."  
Tal Celes pulled her head from between her knees where she had been fighting hyperventilation. She walked up beside Tom and crouched down. She pulled out the mini-PADD again. "This is the first leg."  
"First leg?" inquired the blonde.  
Celes looked slightly ashamed. "I might have exaggerated the pinpoint precision-exact location thing a little. Going to these coordinates, " she waved the PADD, "will narrow down the cone of space where the  
probe is."  
Tom started roaring with laughter. "We just pissed off the Captain on guesswork. For a little bitty girl mouse, you got some serious cojones."  
Celes slapped Tom's arm. Seven watched the interplay with interest before turning back to her console. "I believe there are enough  
components available to make three devices for the masking of  
biosigns."  
"I like when the plan ends up with us not Borg, um you know, besides the whole you um..." Tom turned back to his board.  
"Smooth," Celes slid in next to Seven. "Makes you wonder why they got divorced."  
"Lt. Torres insisted quite loudly in the Mess Hall that Mr. Paris is a  
cheating narcissist incapable of loving anyone but himself." Seven loaded the designs for the dampeners into a PADD along with a list of systems for cannibalizing.  
"I am sitting right here," Tom whined.  
Celes snorted. "Eavesdrop and that's what you get Tom."  
"I liked you better when all you said was 'eep!'" he grouched back.  
Celes touched Seven's arm. "I did some research and there was a way  
to adapt conduits to act as a power source for Borgs. I was thinking you could help me translate the schematics into Engineering- for-Idiots and then I could help you with the dampeners  
Seven turned her eyes to her assistant. "You continue to surprise me. You are risking your career and further your life. You have had almost no contact with Lt. Torres."  
"I have contact with you. You're my friend. She's this important to  
you, then I gotta help."  
"Friends bail you out of jail, real friends are sitting in the cell with you," joked Paris as he adjusted the heading.

Seven listened with half an ear to the quiet war of words going on in the cockpit. She closed up the biodampener. The blonde lay the  
device on the table with care. Everything she was, it was all  
committed to the search for B'Elanna. She didn't know how she was  
going to keep her companions safe.  
She turned to pull the next pile of components close. If she were completely honest with herself, and she was rarely anything but, she would have to admit to having fallen in love with the fiery half- Klingon. Seven would never have admitted it out loud. It was hard enough keeping the bright, loud, illogical world at bay without opening that door. She was content to bask in the indirect light of B'Elanna's presence.  
"Seven?" Celes stood at the threshold. "You ok?"  
"I am operating within normal parameters."  
"Liar." The Bajoran crossed over to sit nearby. "You need to rest or charge or whatever you want to call it. You're still shaky. Don't think I can't read you. People who jump at shadows get really good at reading people. Defense thing."  
Seven tilted her head. "I am grateful for your consideration. "  
"...but I should mind my own beeswax." Celes nodded. "Ok, I'm going back up to give Tom more of a hard time but first there are a few things you should know..."  
At Seven's raised ocular implant, she continued. She raised fingers to mark her points. "1. You aren't gonna dump us. We may not be an elite fighting force, but we take care of ourselves and each other and we are in for the haul. 2. If we're going to have a chance in hell, you need to become our elite fighting force so for Prophets' sakes charge up and 3. We will get her back. Resistance is futile." Celes smiled and went forward.  
Seven stared at the doorway long after TalCeles had gone back to tormenting Mr. Paris. She reached for the components before her hand stopped. She stood and went over to the naked power conduit that she and her assistant had set up for charging.  
She looked at the doorway again. Seven had more than B'Elanna to take care of. She had thought of the entire ship as her Collective, her family. Seven didn't know the true meaning of family until now. Mr. Paris, despite his lesser qualities, TalCeles jumping at shadows, B'Elanna Torres, these were her family and she would lay down her life for them if necessary. She would become their elite fighting force. Seven powered on the interface.

Paris came to the back. He sat down next to the blonde, folding his hands and studying his thumbs. "Hey Seven. We've found the probe.  
Celes is uploading the data its carrying as we speak."  
Seven looked up from her work. "Thank you Lieutenant." She closed  
another unit and slid it to the side. "Was there something more you required?"  
"Seven? I really am sorry. I had no reason to act the way I did. What you're doing now? Above and beyond and I really hope she knows why."  
Seven startled. "She?"  
"B'Elanna. She does know how you feel about her, right?" Seven's eyes dropped as he raised his head. "We'll find her. I think she should know." Tom looked back down at his feet for a moment. "I wasn't what she needed. You might be. Don't fuck up."  
Celes called back. "Got it."  
"Is she gonna be like you? Like you were when we took you I mean?" Seven looked thoughtful. Tom continued, "We'll knock her out and drag her home. Captain might not want us back right now, but she'll take care of Lanna before tossing us in the brig to rot."  
Seven nodded curtly. "We must find her first," she noted as she  
stood and moved forward.  
Celes swiveled to see Tom and Seven come in. "I found the cube. You're not going to like it guys."  
Seven patched the data from Celes's post to an auxiliary station. Her implant rose even as her heart sank. "This is not an ideal situation."  
Tom crossed his arms as he stood behind her. "We're planning to sneak on board a craft carrying over 100,000 drones to find one particular one. We're going to kidnap her, and try to outrun the cube all the way home. What could you possibly have to say that would make that a less attractive situation?"  
"How about the fact that the cube is not alone anymore?"

"Okay, so good news, we found the cube. Bad news, the cube has company." Tom slid into the pilot's seat and started laying in a course.  
"The news gets more distressing Lieutenant. We are currently looking at two cubes, a sphere and two probes. Apparently they are assimilating a system ahead of us."  
"I don't see where this makes it worse. As long as we don't make the radar on our cube the others won't even notice us."  
Seven looked at the pilot. "First, they will notice us sooner or later. A drone will not simply disappear and be ignored. The Collective will consider the loss irrelevant but the technologies involved in the theft will be quite relevant. Second, Lt. Torres may well have been transferred to another ship."  
Tom drew a breath with an audible hiss. "Those are really bad points."  
"Indeed." Seven examined the data further. "I have no wish to endanger the two of you."  
Celes shook her head and turning in her chair wagged her finger at the former drone. "Uh Seven? Remember the talk? We're in whether you like it or not. We just need a plan of attack."  
The blonde considered Celes for several long moments. "I will need to access the information on Lt. Torres's present location from aboard one of the Borg vessels."  
"Would it matter which one and more importantly, would they notice?" asked the Bajoran.  
Seven thought of the Borg and their threat based responses. "If we  
are cautious, I believe that it can be done without alerting the Borg as to our presence."  
Tal Celes stepped up to Seven and her data. "Then we peel away before we hit the system and go for the probe checking the outer worlds."  
Seven regarded her friend with an upraised implant. "An excellent  
choice. The multi-phasic shielding will allow us to approach. I  
will access the necessary information at which time we will be able to find and retrieve Lt. Torres."  
"Stay away from the cube until we have enough info to go in and zip right back out." Tom nodded thoughtfully. "I do like that plan."  
"Just don't screw up the running away part Helmrat," Celes concluded lightly.

350 meters long the probe ship was the minnow of Borg ships. It slid  
over the outer orbits of the system being assimilated marking mining and other colonies for assimilation by the more heavily armored cubes. Tom slid into the shadow of the small ship.  
Multi-phasic technology had been upgraded significantly since the days of Magnus Hansen and the tiny vessel remained unnoticed. Tom breathed a sigh of relief and immediately tensed as if waiting to see if the Borg heard him. He looked back at the two women preparing to beam aboard. "Good luck ladies."  
Celes smiled. "Next time I fly and you play lookout on the Borg  
ship."  
Tom snorted. "Remind me to never teach you how to fly."  
Seven's jaw tensed as she ran over the plan and its various consequences in her head once again. "Lt. Paris, if we should be detected..."  
The pilot shook his head. "Got you covered Seven. Just get a location before you bail. No wasted trips."  
The former drone nodded and turned back toward Celes who was bent over the computer again. "Understood, Lieutenant. Crewman? Are you ready?"  
Celes straighten up. "Ready, willing, and able."  
Seven reached out and turned on the Bajoran's bio-dampener. Her implant rose. "Now you are ready."  
"I would have remembered.. .. really," Celes mumbled as she grew redder and redder.  
Tom rolled his eyes and crossed his fingers surreptitiously. "Dream team ahoy." The women crossed the floor and vanished into the light of dematerialization.

Seven and Celes found themselves in a tight space. Squeezing past the Bajoran, Seven raised her hand to interface with the mind of a  
Collective. The tubule slid home and Seven began making herself as irrelevant as possible.  
Sliding near invisible surrounded by the voices she used to know as her only home, she sought a single bit of information. The small fleet was assimilating the local species making a whirlwind of data sweep her away from her goal again and again. The cost of being near  
invisible was occasionally getting swept downstream away from the  
places she needed to find.  
Celes took a deep breath and pushed back into the corner. The probe ship was tiny by Borg standards but it did hold a few drones. A maintenance drone passed within a foot of the two women. Celes closed her eyes, clenched her teeth and tried not to think to loud until the clump-clump passed away. She looked over her shoulder and willed her companion to get a move on.  
Seven found what she was looking for. She felt a brush. Seven took what she needed and withdrew her tubules.  
"TalCeles, we have to leave now," she remarked.  
"Ya think? Tell me you know where we're going."  
"Yes. Unfortunately, the Collective is aware that there was an unauthorized mind in the Collective. They are unaware of who or where but they will be more alert."  
"Here I was thinking this would be easy," groaned Celes.  
Seven's ocular implant rose even as she signaled for the pick up. She moved swiftly toward her station as they materialized.  
Tom swiveled to face them. "We got a place to go?"  
"The sphere."  
"Cool. Only 11000 torch and pitchfork carrying drones to chase us when we run away."  
"Now the bad news," started Celes.  
"There's bad news? Crap."  
Seven nodded. "Indeed. Security will be heightened on the Borg vessels. Biodampeners may not be sufficient."  
Tom sighed. "We gotta get her. Any way to make this a safer trip."  
"There may be an alternative to boarding the sphere."

Tom's mouth hung open. "You want to what?"  
"Is your hearing not properly functional?" asked Seven curiously as she laid in the needed coordinates. "We will take her when she goes  
down to assimilate the mining colony in the Outer Belt. The sphere is being used to take care of minor population centers outside the habitable worlds of the system."  
"So... to sum up, we are going to land on a colony about to get  
assimilated, try not to get shot by the locals who are hard-bitten miners with a Jones not to messed with, try not to get assimilated by the two dozen or so Borg walking around, look for B'Elanna, subdue her, 'cause she's gonna fight us, and then get away clean."  
Seven looked up and nodded. "Fairly concise summing up. I have laid the coordinates, Lieutenant."  
Tom swiveled to face Tal Celes, who was already getting geared up for another foray into places best not thought about. "Anything you want to add?"  
"I'd rather be parked under a rock than six inches away from a Borg ship with them on alert. Aside from the massive guilt factor involved with being in the same place as an assimilation, this is probably going to be our safest bet."  
"Safest," repeated Tom before he swiveled back. "Ok, I am just a driver, you ladies are going out into that colony so if its copacetic with you, its copacetic with me."  
Seven silently mouthed 'copacetic' before turning back to the biodampeners. The thought of being the middle of an assimilation free-for-all was tearing her apart. She had taken part in them and was still trying to find ways to deal with that guilt. The blonde drew up her ice blanket. Her guilt is irrelevant. All that mattered was a single drone, all that mattered was taking B'Elanna back and preferably before the half-Klingon had further assimilation nightmares of her own.  
Tom slid into position. "Sphere is just coming into position. Reading fire from the colony. Small arms mostly. They didn't seem to have much in the way of weapons."  
"That will work to our advantage," replied Seven as she and Tal  
stood. Tom hurriedly stood.  
"Wait." The helmsman stood and gave Celes a peck on the folded ridges over her nose. "For luck," he said shrugging and heading back  
to the pilot's chair.  
Celes grinned until she caught sight of Seven's upraised ocular implant. She blushed. Shrugging she turned on the dampener. "Let's go already."

The screaming had already begun. Celes took a deep breath and followed  
the former Borg closely. Seven held up her hand indicating that the sensor technician should hold position. She moved toward the  
population center of the colony. People ran past her hiding place to be taken by Borg appearing from the sphere overhead.  
A woman ran past with a small child. She fell hard the child landing  
several feet away. The woman screamed as a Borg held her long enough to extend tubules. Her eyes now dull with the action of the Borg virus fell on Seven. The blonde's eyes slid over to the child. She ran, scooping up the girl and jumped behind a low wall.  
Seven regarded the child. Wide black eyes looked back under a tangled deep red mop. Dirt and tears streaked the wide pale face as the child clung to her. Seven placed fingers over the mouth and the child nodded. Taking a deep breath, Seven held the girl closer and watched for an opening.  
A fight broke out on the far side and Seven took advantage of the distraction. She slid across to break into a full run until she reached Tal Celes. The brunette was startled by the introduction of a child to her arms. "Bring her up. I will recover Lt. Torres on my  
own."  
Celes nodded, she long ago learned what battles to fight. "We'll watch for you." She tightened her arms around the child and called for a beam up to the Delta Flyer.  
Seven turned and ran into the center again. An explosion rang out throwing her off her feet. She pushed herself off the ground and stood just as a Borg materialized before her. She quickly twisted its arm behind it and used her position behind it to snap its neck. Stumbling slightly as she backed away she looked for Lt. Torres amidst the screams.

Seven spotted her target. Almost unidentifiable save by height and  
forehead ridges, B'Elanna was methodically scanning the surrounding area. The blonde ran, bending low to throw the half-Klingon off her feet. B'Elanna's arm shot up sending the taller woman flying. Seven rolled to her feet and taking advantage of B'Elanna's vulnerable position on the ground shot a dose of tranquilizer in her that would have killed most elephant herds.  
Seven would be lucky if it kept B'Elanna's nanoprobes busy for longer than a few hours. She slapped a modified cortical monitor on the drone's neck. It would likewise be lucky to hold the Borg transceiver in a holding pattern for more than an hour or two. Tapping her comm badge in a pre-arranged signal, they vanished from the colony.  
Tom swiveled to look at them in shock. Seven looked at him and snarled, "Go now." She lifted the now much heavier half-Klingon and carried her into the aft section. Tal Celes was on a bunk humming a Bajoran lullaby to the child curled into her like a kitten. She stopped as she saw Seven walk in. Tenderly moving the girl onto the mattress she stepped up to help put B'Elanna onto another bunk.  
"It really is her," Celes whispered.  
"Indeed." Seven touched the ridges briefly before turning to draw in the monitoring equipment. She looked at the small child.  
Tal followed the gaze. "Her name is Lethe. Whatever else  
happens... you did right taking her away from there. We couldn't  
save everyone, but saving her, that was something."  
Seven's head tilted. "She will have no one."  
"She already has you." Seven glanced at her assistant before  
returning to her work. Tal walked across the compartment to pull the blanket over the small child. Crossing back she looked down at B'Elanna. "Will it hold her?"  
The blonde examined the readings. "I will physically remove the  
transceiver. There will be no transmissions from her. I am  
uncertain if I will be able to maintain her current quiescent state."  
Celes shook her head. "I'll tell Tom to get a lead foot." She crossed her arms and moved out front.  
Seven crossed and perched on the edge of the bed beside Lethe. She gently pushed the hair from the tiny face. She remembered little of her own childhood but she knew with unfathomable certainty that this small girl should not learn about the universe the same way she did. Looking across at B'Elanna she felt her heart ache. Standing the former drone made her way to the medical supply cabinet.

Seven came forward. Looking up from the comm panel, Celes nodded. "I got the passengers."  
The former Borg sat beside Lt. Paris. Looking over he asked her, "So we going to find some relatives for her?"  
"This species had an extremely limited number of low warp-capable ships. It was being assimilated for its biological uniqueness. It is extremely unlikely that there will be refugees."  
Tom closed his eyes and blew out a breath. "Damn." He looked over his shoulder. "Well, if the Captain ever lets us out of the brig,  
it'd be cool to have someone call me uncle."  
Seven tilted her head. "You and TalCeles will spend minimal time in  
the Brig. I intend to tell the Captain that I kidnapped you."  
"Right. I can buy you kidnapping me, but until a couple days ago no one had clue one what a criminal mastermind Celes is."  
"I was extremely irrational."  
Tom snorted. "Great planning right up til the part where we all  
spend the rest of the trip home in a deep dark hole."  
"B'Elanna will be back."  
"Yeah. That alone makes it worth it," Tom responded quietly. He smiled at Seven. "If you don't tell her, I will. She has to know why you risked everything for her."  
"It is not necessary."  
Tom opened his mouth and then shut it. He shook his head and adjusted their heading. Some battles you just don't fight as Celes had said.  
"At this point, no pursuit but if you're right it won't be long. I'm swinging wide so we can duck into the Opik-Oort cloud if need be. It's especially dirty... lots of big chunks. Once we're past the Cloud I'll make like a jack rabbit."  
"An excellent idea. Perhaps if we were to veer towards the nebula...  
here." Seven sent a location to Paris's panel. "This nebula would provide cover as well."  
Paris nodded. "Now we're talking." His head turned at a small scream from the back. His eyes met Seven's. "That's for you." His  
eyes followed her out.  
"Wouldn't want to take on that part of the mission for all the hot dogs at a ball park."

Seven was nearly barreled over by the tiny red head. She swept Lethe up into her arms settling her on one hip. Lethe looked back with wide eyes for a moment before burrowing her head into Seven's neck. The blonde adjusted her hold and walked into the aft compartment consumed with concern.  
Tal Celes looked up from where she was on the floor nursing a badly bruised shin. "She woke up and saw B'Elanna," Celes explained with a grimace. She pulled down the pant leg with a sigh. "She has a really great kick."  
Seven attempted to get Lethe's attention until dark eyes met her own. "Lethe, you are afraid of B'Elanna. Do not be. She was assimilated but she is not dangerous at this time."  
Lethe considered B'Elanna for a moment before burying her face in Seven's neck again. Seven's hand came up to rub the small girl's back. "Celes, perhaps you and Lethe would be more comfortable remaining in the forward compartment. "  
Celes stood and hobbled over. Taking the girl gently she smiled. "You got it. Give me a chance to show Lethe here how to harass Tom."  
Seven's implant rose as she regarded her friend. "That would be acceptable, however see that you do not distract Lt. Paris from our escape."  
"We can do subtle, can't we Lethe?" Celes grinned and took the child  
forward.  
Seven perched on the edge of B'Elanna's cot. She monitored her biosigns for several minutes before administering another dose of sedative. She wished that she had stopped and planned enough to rig an alcove. B'Elanna was not currently dangerous but she could become so if an alternative were not found to keep her unconscious.  
Seven's fingers absently traced the gentle raised ridges on B'Elanna's forehead. The woman could barely stand to be in the same room with her most days. Suddenly, she felt terribly the liberty she had taken with this touch. Her eyes slid shut as her hand withdrew.  
Opening the medical kit, she began to consider the options. She looked up at the jury rigged conduit. It did not render her unaware of her surroundings as the alcove did but perhaps the half-Klingon' s  
implants could be fooled, at least to a degree.  
Seven took out the maintenance cart and knelt by the conduit just as the ship shuddered.

"Hang on. We got company," Paris called to her from the forward  
compartment.  
Seven looked up at B'Elanna. The problem of keeping B'Elanna from breaking out of her unconscious state remained whether there was a pursuit or not. They could not afford to have her wake up and create havok on the ship.  
The ship danced briefly. Seven's hands braced her against the wall. She locked the tool kit into position and began the slow work of  
reconfiguring the crudely set up recharge station. It didn't have to be an alcove, but it had to taste like one.  
A Borg trickle charging on the conduit as it was would know the difference. This was not an alcove. There was an energy threshold that would trigger the alcove behavior, which was to say B'Elanna would go into a state in which power expenditures went to minimum and  
consciousness went to non-existence.  
A sudden shift through Seven to the floor. Her eyes shifted up and confirmed that B'Elanna was still bound to the cot in a force field. Her eyes closed briefly before she rolled back up to work again. A panel exploded.  
Seven's fingers reached up almost automatically to re-route power from the now smoked panel. She ducked into the opening and reaching behind the conduit adjusted the power governor.  
"Steeplechase! " came from the pilot's seat in the front as he felt the Flyer come alive in new and interesting ways. He ducked another ice mountain and came up slaloming. The Borg scout ship stayed with them. The multiphasic shielding kept them from being 'seen' in all ways but one so all he had to do was make them lose sight and cut straight out for the nebula.  
Tal regarded the pilot as if he'd grown a new head and tightened her arms around Lethe. The girl in response this guardian's increased fear began crying and trying to bury herself in Cele's skin.  
The final passenger of the tiny ship woke up. The Collective was gone. The transceiver began regenerating. It would take approximately twenty minutes given the extent of the removal process. In the absence of Collective real-time commands, the lost drone fell back on a command etched into every fiber of its being. Return to the Collective.  
The drone's hand reached up and pulled back as it encountered a field. It's nanoprobes automatically began adjusting, compensating. A moment's work had the drone sitting up and swinging out its legs. A dull thump-thump was heard as its feet dropped to the floor.  
Scanning the room revealed a lifeform crouched on the floor near an open conduit.  
"You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

Seven's nimble fingers used the remaining few seconds to finish the  
connection. She rolled away from the B'Elanna-drone. Placing  
herself firmly between the drone and the forward compartment she put her analytical mind to work trying to figure out how to incapacitate B'Elanna without killing her and to do it before the now predictable daughter of the Collective had time enough to regenerate her transceiver.  
Seven felt deep sadness at having to fight someone she cared so very deeply for. "Forgive me B'Elanna for any damage I do you," she whispered.  
The Borg raised a heavily modified arm. Seven dodged knowing that  
B'Elanna would attempt to stun her if she would not come within  
sufficiently close range.  
The Borg intoned. "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."  
"-futile." Seven joined in, almost automatically. She would need to be in extremely close range in order to administer a dose of sedative. It would do little good. It was insufficent to render the nanoprobes stuck for long, but if drone-B'Elanna went down, even for a moment, Seven would have the opportunity to attach her to the newly  
reconfigured trickle charge unit and put her in a holding pattern.  
The problems came with proximity. Any work at that range rendered her vulnerable to an attack by the assimilation tubules. She could not allow herself to be assimilated. She could not allow TalCeles, Tom Paris and Lethe to suffer if she failed. Better that she ended this drone and in all likelihood herself rather than place them into further jeopardy. She could not bear to think of this as B'Elanna if it came to that point.  
The ship shifted hard as it dodged another probe and barely scraped  
above another chunk of ice. The drone slid slightly as the deck  
angled hard. Seven ran and jumped onto the cot, pushing herself off to land on B'Elanna's back. The half-Klingon stiffly tried to reach back even as Seven attempted to anchor herself to the broad back.  
Seven shifted her weight to reach to the hypospray which had been placed in a tricorder pouch. Her eyes slid shut momentarily when she realized it wasn't there. It had not been properly secured and was now probably underfoot. Her jaw firmed and she committed herself to dragging B'Elanna to the conduit hook-up the hard way.  
"I apologize."  
She clung hard as the drone drove itself backwards into a wall. Seven's breath was smashed out of her lungs. Gathering her strength she raised her fist with difficulty and with a wheezy battle cry sunk  
her own assimilation tubules into the neck of the battling drone.

The tubules slid home. Seven found herself inundated with the noise that was every Borg's mind. It was quieter than if B'Elanna had been  
uplinked to the Collective but still a whirlwind of information.  
Sensory data, commands to nanoprobes, commands to the muscles and  
nervous system flew past her on hurricane force winds. Seven had one chance to find what she needed and make good of a very tiny window of opportunity.  
Seven felt as if stars were going supernova behind her eyes as B'Elanna slammed back into the wall again. She drove deeper. She felt her goal under her mind's fingers and mentally yanked away at the command sequences.  
The B'Elanna drone went momentarily limp as the power that animated her frame was shunted to protecting her cortical implants prior to  
dismantling. Her highly redundant systems would discover the fake in a moment but it was all the opportunity that Seven needed. She  
braced her legs and pulled the inert body back with every ounce of strength in her.  
She reached back and grabbed for the interface unit, settling it against B'Elanna after rolling her over. She grabbed the tricorder from where it had fallen on the floor to check the drone's condition. B'Elanna was in a regenerative mode. Seven allowed herself to lay back as she assessed her own damage.  
Tal peeked her head through the door. She ran over to Seven. "We heard the fight but Tom was flying and Lethe was... are you all right?"  
Seven opened her eyes. "I am operating within acceptable parameters," she pushed out from still painful lungs.  
"You look like shit boss, but fantastic on the whole alive thing. She ok?" Celes nodded to drone-B'Elanna.  
"She is likewise within acceptable parameters. She is regenerating. The Borg vessels?" Seven sat up.  
"Tom lost 'em and now we're headed for the nebula. I'm going to patch you up. Stay put."  
"It is unnecessary, " protested the former drone.  
The Bajoran brought down the dermal regenerator. "What of all of this nuttiness has been necessary? It's all about what we do for family. Now let me fix those lumps."  
Seven nodded curtly and after checking the tricorder one last time allowed TalCeles to begin patching.

Seven sat primly on the edge. She stared unseeing at the Brig wall as she had done since the Flyer's return. Janeway couldn't even look at her. Tuvok brought down the Captain's wrath. After Seven sent her confession to the theft of the Flyer as well as the kidnap of Tom  
Paris and Tal Celes to the Captain there was not even the sound of her companions' voices to distract her from the wall in front of her.  
A chair dragged in front of the cell. Seven didn't even have to look. "Good afternoon Lt. Torres. I trust you are functioning within acceptable parameters?"  
B'Elanna sat down with a wry grin. "I'm never going to be able to sneak up on you am I?"  
The blonde shifted her position slightly to look at the half- Klingon. "Unlikely." Her eyes took stock of the signs of B'Elanna's time as a drone. There was a narrow silver band beside her eye as well as indications that the hand that B'Elanna's other thumb rubbed endlessly was artificial.  
"Do I pass inspection Seven of Nine?" B'Elanna asked smiling. "I am doing ok now thanks to you and the others."  
"That is..." Seven failed to find words to express how glad she was that B'Elanna would be fine.  
"Heard Captain threw away the field code. Wanted you in here to rot."  
"It was an outcome I considered," Seven quietly responded.  
"She's still feeling guilty as hell getting me assimilated over what turned out to be an overclocked energy sink. Damned good thing I have no compunction about using that to my advantage." At Seven's startled look she grinned. "Someone's gotta raise that little girl. Much more time with Celes and Tom and she is going be epically messed up."  
B'Elanna continued as Seven remained silent. "I suggest that you stay away from the Captain for a while, but you're out of here tomorrow. I was wondering if maybe you'd like to celebrate your freedom with  
me?"  
"I would be honored, Lt. Torres."  
"Honor, schmonor. Just say 'Yes, it's a date.'"  
"It is a date."  
B'Elanna nodded."Good. Get some rest, Seven. I'll see you tomorrow." B'Elanna stood up and slid the chair back. "If it got lost in all that. Thanks Seven. I... thanks." She stood looking at the seated blonde for a moment. "I like you too," she offered quietly before turning to go.  
Seven turned back to the wall. It was the same wall but somehow a smile had found its way to the face of the woman watching it.


End file.
